Alcoa wins $50M Army grant to help develop next-generation combat vehicles

NEW YORK, March 3 (UPI) -- Alcoa has received a U.S. Army contract to research and develop lightweight engineering solutions for ground combat vehicles and systems.

The award issued by the Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center is for five years and has a maximum value of $50 million.

"This agreement with TARDEC builds on Alcoa Defense's decades-long partnership with the U.S. Army to advance military ground vehicles," said Eric Roegner, president of Alcoa Defense. "Alcoa's lightweight solutions have improved troop protection while reducing vehicle weight and assembly time. We look forward to building on our successful track record to help develop the next generation combat vehicle."

The first project under the contract is an initiative to advance Alcoa-developed aluminum weld wire alloys, which have been proven to increase the strength of welded joints. Under potential future directives, Alcoa will provide material research, development, engineering, testing, and evaluation efforts related to ground vehicle lightweighting, including aluminum forming technology, fastening and joining, modeling and simulation.

Armor development could also be included in future work under the contract, as well as material development, material fabrication, energy conservation, and coating and corrosion technology.